Meaning and reference books
Meaning and reference books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
Naming and Necessity
Saul A. KripkeArgues that proper names are rigid designators and that some necessary truths are a posteriori; based on 1970 lectures.
Demonstratives
David Benjamin KaplanDevelops a formal account of context-sensitive expressions such as 'I', 'here' and 'now', separating character from content.
The Varieties of Reference
Gareth EvansExamines how thoughts about objects depend on informational links to them, published posthumously and edited by John McDowell.
A System of Logic
John Stuart MillDistinguishes connotation from denotation in terms, an early precursor of later debates about sense and reference.
Word and Object
Willard Van Orman QuinePresents the indeterminacy of translation and the thesis that reference is inscrutable.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
